Miniature Gingerbread Houses

From a Cupcake Jemma Youtube video.

I have no clue about piping and have never made Royal Icing before.

so.... as you may or may not know............ nothing is quite as simple as it looks on Youtube.  Besides, she is a professional baker ..hahahhahah... silly me.

I always just expect to follow along and things surely must just happen as easily as they do for them on there right? .... nope.......

Every square inch of my kitchen was a disaster let me tell you.  Icing sugar is so messy even if a person is careful and I am very careful.   And...it just didn't come together like hers did at all.  She put in 3 tablespoons of water and barely had to add a bit more and it looked great.  Of course... seeing and 'feeling' consistency isn't quite the same.  I had to add about 6 tablespoons of water just to get it to be almost solid glue...and, yes...I measured the icing sugar very carefully... an exact 400 grams... by the scale.  Maybe it is a case of the lack of humidity in our homes compared to those in England.  Basically, we have none.

Anyway... very long story made somewhat shorter ..( many hours long if truth be told!@#)  finally I got some icing in a bag.  By then, I already had 3 spatulas with hard, crusty bits on them so had to keep tossing them and reaching for a new one... good thing I have many, many spatulas. .. (still could not get a tip small enough to do it properly either) and practiced on some parchment paper for a bit and then...onward with biscuits to build some tiny houses.  Tiny being the key word here....they are only 3.5 inches high...and, 2.25 inches across the front...only 2 across an end.

At first I was pretty disappointed with my results...but, on I went... and even if they are a bit more whimsical and not as tidy as Jemma's.... I like them.   she did have 3 colours ...but in the end...all I could manage was my white icing... not trying for 3 colours if I can't even make the icing pipe properly.

Mr. BumbleVee says I was trying to make a two story house look like a bungalow....aha....I didn't notice that really....not a wonder they don't look so great.   Not a wonder he is the designer.  I watched the video a few times...and, then...just went for it.  Some details escaped me I guess.  Next time I may draw out some door and window configurations before I  begin winging it.....

Also...I did watch a few more Julia Usher videos later...WOW !!  and, discovered my icing had to be much softer  ... no wonder my arms and wrists almost gave out after 5 houses and many hours of struggling.  We ate the 6th house and other extra roof and side pieces.  A good thing.  My arms wouldn't take any more ...nor would my back. And, that is the BEST and tastiest gingerbread recipe ever.  I love those biscuits.  She uses Golden Syrup instead of molasses ... which I don't like anyway... so I love the taste of them.

I want to take a cake decorating class now...to learn how to pipe icing properly.  What fun that would be.

Here are my cute little "gb" houses.... as my friend Muriel calls them.... in spite of all the pitfalls and my own limited piping skills....I do like them a lot.